The Plan
by Elsey Snape
Summary: I'm sick of all the stories where Snape and Harry get manipulated.... So here's my story of how they shed Dumbles and get the heck out of dodge
1. The Flight

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, but I'd like to own Snape in the dirtiest way you can imagine... :)

A/N: So I decided to do some POVs... let me know if they suck or if I should keep going or what. Thank you to my reviewers. I love the feedback!

The Plan

"So Professor Snape, what's the plan?" After about five minutes of sitting in silence, it was time to discuss this. The manipulative old coot had really done it this time. Telling us that we're father and son, my appearance is to change to "protect me" or some other bullshit, and we have to live together at Hogwarts and play the part of a happy father and son. I honestly don't think I could handle that.

"Oh, we'll live together, but the other things he'll have no say in. I don't need him anymore. I never really did to be honest... No matter. I have a house on the Cote d'Azur in France. We'll go there. But you're appearance won't change, not if you don't want it to. And I won't make you change your name. That's overkill. That old coot has seen the last of me. No more. We're leaving. Gather your belongings. We're leaving Hogwarts, and we're not coming back. Do you object?"

"Not at all."

We work in silence as we get our things in order, deciding what to take, what to leave behind. I had a room down in his chambers because of my frequent nightmares. Not visions as I am now a master at Occlumency, just nightmares about my parents and Sirius and the Dursleys. I ask him if I can leave a note for Hermione and Ron, he says I can, but halfway through I change my mind. There are more important things to do right now. I can write to them later.

After Severus (as he's told me to call him) banishes our belongings to France, we portkey out of there from his chambers near the Slytherin dormitory and arrive at the most beautiful place I've ever seen. Severus tells me that the house and his (our) property is hidden. No one will be able to find it or us. Not Death Eaters, not the Dark Lord, not Dumbledore.

An outisder may wonder why I suddenly trust the greasy Potions Master. Well, it wasn't all that sudden to be honest. Around my second Occlumency lesson with him in sixth year, we built up this system. We would practice Occlumency, I failed, he saw my horrible childhood, then we'd have a firewhisky (or five) in his chamber and he'd tell me about his own horrible childhood. We never talked about James (I didn't think of him as my father anymore, even before we knew the truth) or Sirius or Remus, sometimes about the rat, but not often. He'd tell me about my mother though. Things that nobody else knew. Nice things, tender, and loving. He loved her, I could tell that from the first time I heard him say her name.

But we both agreed that the meddling old fool had no right to keep secrets that could have a major impact on a person's life from that person. Like telling him your father is alive and is your (supposed) worst enemy besides the Dark Lord himself. That was the last straw. We had hatched out the plan before he even told us. We knew. We knew there was something big he was keeping from us from the way his eyes, his fucking eyes, would twinkle whenever he saw one of us and asked how Occlumency was going.

After Dumbledore called us into his office after suppper on Christmas Eve and dropped the bomb, he left us to talk it over. Well, we did. It would have been different had he just found out, but he had known since my conception. James was infertile, and Dumbledore conspired with him to get my mother pregnant. I tuned out the explanation, it made my head hurt, but Severus was pissed. Well, we had the plan, but I didn't think we'd actually go through with it. From what any outsider could see, the git worships the old fool. I know differently, but I thought he did respect the man. But I guess a secret of this magnitude puts a giant hole in that trust.

We go into the house and I can tell that this house had to have cost a lot of money. To my surprise it was totally muggle, but I knew that before long, somewhere in the basement there would be a potions lab. That's Severus's love, to make potions. At one time, before I knew him, I would have said that it was all he had to live for, but I know that's not the case. He really loves to teach, but he couldn't be fair in the Gryffindor-Slytherin classes. Ask any Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw and they can tell you where to find a bezoar and what it does. They all can brew perfect potions and he doesn't go around bitching at everyone if one little thing is incorrect. He lets them know something's wrong or missing and helps them figure out how to fix it.

Before we left, when leaving was just an idea, he told me he'd tutor me so that I would know what I need to know in order to defeat the Dark Lord. It's alright because I know that to him I'm more than just a tool. I'm more than the Boy-Who-Lived. To him I am my own person and what happened to me when I was only a baby shouldn't have so much of an impact on my life. He respects me for who I am and what I can become, but not for my vain title and what other people expect from me. I can be myself with him.

I'm looking forward to it because I know how he can and will teach me. After our first few Occlumency lessons this year, he finally broke down and taught me instead of tormenting me. I think he was getting tired of giving me his alcohol. But I got the theory behind it and then I finally managed to get the action. Just like any other magic, you need to understand the theory. But he's a good teacher when he is able to be fair.

With him by my side, with his teaching, I can defeat the Dark Lord. I don't need that old meddling fool running and ruining my life. Severus and I can do it. And I might even live to see the day when the wizarding world doesn't have to worry about the Dark Lord anymore. Because my father will help me. But also because I will help myself. I didn't have much of a childhood, but he's already told me that he'll do what he can to give me one. He told me that weeks ago, before we even had an inkling of what was to come. I already saw him as a father figure in my mind where no one else could see it, but now it's a true fact and the cover-up was just too much.

After settling into my new bedroom I go exploring. When we arrived, he told me I could go anywhere I wanted in the house. I run into him in the kitchen and he pours me a drink. Fire whiskey. I nod my thanks and we sit in a comfortable silence for a moment. He's watching me and I'm watching him but it's comfortable even though we don't know what to say.

We know now. We need to talk about it, now that we're both thinking rationally, about what it means, our newly discovered relation. But neither of us knows what to say or how to say it.

"Professor, do you have any idea how I thought of you before that meeting?" He shakes his head, sometimes he's too oblivious for his own good. "No, of course not, you were the one who taught me to hide my emotions, how to close off my mind." I said this with a smile, he knew I meant it as a compliment. "I would think of you and say to myself, wow, if only my father were as good a man as Professor Snape, maybe I wouldn't be ashamed of him. But then, after a few weeks of thinking about that, I realized that, to me, in my own mind, James Potter was not my father. I don't know when I first realized it, but I think it was a gradual thing. I know we have a silent agreement to not talk about what I saw last year, but that may have been the first time I was ever ashamed to be a Potter. Even back before we became close I always had a deep respect for you. It only becomes deeper as I get to know you better."

"You aren't ashamed that I am your father? You're not upset because it seems your whole life until now has been a lie? I certainly would be."

"Severus, you are my father. I am not and I will never be ashamed of that. I am upset, but not at you." There is a lingering pause, but Severus doesn't say anything so I shake my head and continue. "My life has been a lie, but that's hardly your fault. You are just as much a victim in this as I am. We've been lied to, manipulated and abused our whole lives, but not anymore. From now on, we have each other, and no one will take that away from us. Not Dumbledore, not Voldemort. No one."

Severus doesn't say anything for a few moments, and just as I begin to think my words had no effect on him, he sighs contentedly, "We have each other." He looks me in the eye and gives me a rare (even with our familiarity), but true smile. "You are my son and I will always be here for you. To help you, guide you, teach you. To be the father that I've always wanted to be, and the father I know you've always wanted. I will do my damnedest to make sure you are happy." He gets up from his seat, comes to sit next to me, and in his familiar, comforting way rests a hand on my shoulder. But this time I feel compelled to do something I've only done twice, both times in grief, never in happiness. I wrap my arms around him, and, unlike the previous occasions, he's not stiff and uncomfortable at first. He immediately embraces me, as if it were the most natural thing to do.

We go to bed not long after that, but for the first time in I don't know how long, I don't have nightmares. I go to sleep knowing my father is alive and that he loves me, he accepts me. And he wants only for me to be happy. The only thing he expects from me is to be happy and to live my life with no regrets. Those thoughts get me through the night, nightmare free.

And the next day I wake up feeling great. It's Christmas morning. It's Christmas morning and I finally have what I've wanted these last fifteen years. I have a family.

A/N: Feel free to review and give me Constructive critism...


	2. McGonagall Ponders

To say Albus Dumbledore was upset would be an understatement. I've honestly never seen him so infuriated and I've known him for nearly sixty years. He honestly thought he was doing the right thing for Harry and Severus, but maybe he _is_ getting too old to know when he is actually doing more harm than good.

He thought that keeping the secret would be better for all involved. Severus was in no position to be a parent, not with his being a spy. And Harry needed someone to look up to. Even after James and Lily died, he thought it would be for the best to take Harry to the muggles even though he knew that there was a living relative in the wizarding world. Someone he could look up to, someone to care for him, and someone for whom he could care. Harry never had that as he grew up with those muggles.

I know that for a fact since I have been his Head of House for five and a half years now. I know that he has nightmares nearly every night about what those muggles did to him. But it does not take a skilled Legilimens to figure out that the boy has demons in his past. I tried to tell Albus from the first night his roommates came to me telling me Harry was screaming in his sleep but they were unable to wake him up. That was his first week of his first year. The young boys, the same age as he if not only a little older knew that something was not right with the boy, but Albus would hear none of it.

And I fear that this one last deception may have been the last straw for them both. They both could have had someone to love, someone to love them, someone to take care of. I never agreed with Albus to put Harry in the care of those muggles. He always should have been raised among his own. Wizarding children, if born into a wizarding family should never be placed in the care of muggles. There's even talk of making that a law. I support it. I always have. I don't have a thing against muggles, really, but they do not understand the needs wizarding children have. They are not like muggle children. They develop differently and are more mature. Muggles don't know how to handle a wizarding child.

Albus has no right to be so upset. He brought it on himself. I will say that I will miss them both. They are such bright boys. Severus was always such an asset to the school, to the Order, but he was more than that. He was a human being. I think Albus loses sight of things like that sometimes. He gets so caught up in defeating Voldemort, but he forgets that we still need to live our lives.We cannot put off living until he is defeated. If we do that, then in a way he has already won. And isn't that what we're trying to prevent?

And Harry. If that boy would be given a fair shake at life, then he could go so far, he can do anything he puts his mind to. He just lacks the resources, he doesn't have the training. If they have run off together like Albus says, I hope Severus can teach him, and teach him well. Severus is able to teach him, I sincerely believe that.

I didn't even know why they did run off until I asked Albus directly. Even then he acted like it was a top-secret issue. I suppose if it were to reach the ears of the wrong people, things could get sticky, but honestly. I've known the man for nearly sixty years. He doesn't have one reason to not trust me. Keeping them apart just because of the way Harry was conceived. Just because Severus didn't actually have sex with Lily doesn't mean Harry is any less his son. Albus knows that as well as I. It was his hair-brained scheme to begin with. The insufferable old fool.


	3. The Friends

Hermione thinks I should just let this go, but I can't. I mean, my best mate up and leavs me without so much as a note, and on Christmas Eve, no less. I mean he knew Mum and Dad were stoping by before going on to Romania, but he had to go off with that git.

Hermie and I didn't even know he was gone until the next morning when Dumbledore came up to the Tower and asked us if we'd seen him. He got a really weird look in his eyes like he won a million galleons, but when Hermie and I got to breakfast, Dumbledore looked madder than I've ever seen. Everyone was tense, like we could all feel that something was off.

Later, Hermie asked me if I noticed that the git wasn't at breakfast or lunch or dinner. My beloved potions professor would never miss a Christmas feast because I'm pretty sure Dumbles would kick his ass for it. Besides, not even he could pass up that ham. Damn.

I just wish we knew what was going on.


End file.
